Week ending 3/20

This is music is the kind of thing that had me geeked as a youngster.

A little less remains than a week before the Bel Monte 50 in Lyndhurst, VA, west of Charllotttssville.

I really can't wait to run on some hilly trails and see some new land. Months of running flat, unbelievably pot-holed roads, often in the dirt and snow along the shoulder, leaping over beer cans, bags of trash, discarded mattresses and suitcases full of roller blades (yeah)...well, combine that with months of uninterrupted cold and literally weeks without sun...i was days away from climbing up a tall pole and allowing myself to starve to death in protest. of everything.

But now.

the weather has more or less begun to Spring on us. There is hope beneath the black debris previously suspended within piles of snow and ice. The potholes down the street (more than one of which was large enough to lie down in completely, your body beneath street level, looking uncomfortably similar to a shallow grave) have now finally been filled with shovelfuls of asphalt. Things are looking up...where the sun now occasionally shines.

70 miles this week. a nice night run on friday for 11, then 16 with rob in the wee hours of morning and then 14 on sunday with gabbo riding her bike/trail running. my left foot is feeling weird. i'm ready to run a little less this week, although not really taper per se. i don't mind hurting or being sore, but when some new pain begins to gestate, i get a little irritated, especially before a race.

final note: a clown car full of high school kids pulled up across the street from me, on the grass. they were walking down the way to a house party, but didn't want to park there so as to avoid suspicion (standard move, good call kids).

however, i really value my sleep and i'm a really big asshole and my car was broken into not so long ago, so...

i walked out to the street, watched them head down to the house party for a minute, thought about leaving a note on the windshield and instead opted to yell:

"HEY! GET YOUR CAR THE FUCK OFF MY LAWN! WHAT THE FUCK? IF YOU'RE GOING DOWN THERE TO PARTY THEN PARK YOUR FUCKING CAR DOWN THERE AND PARTY! IT ISN'T FUCKING ROCKET SCIENCE!"

i punctuated this with one last, existential, "FUCK!"

i'm 80 years old.